How SCOTUS ‘Shook the Rails’ on State Court Jurisdiction 

In a recent decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held that Pennsylvania’s long-arm statute, deeming businesses registered to do business in the Commonwealth to have consented to personal jurisdiction in any type of action, complies with the due process clause.

Although the Supreme Court’s decision in Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co. appears to set new statutory “consent” criteria for establishing general personal jurisdiction over out-of-state corporations, the 4-1-4 plurality ruling has left a sense of uncertainty of its long-term impacts. What is clear is that Mallory has the potential to bring forth the most fundamental shift in jurisdictional case law in decades. To that end, practitioners should analyze the holding in Mallory and quickly consider its implications for corporate clients nationwide.